The use of ascomycetous fungi as pigment producers opens the way to an alternative to synthetic dyes, especially in the red-dye industries, which have very few natural pigment alternatives. The present paper aimed to bio-prospect and screen out 15 selected ascomycetous fungal strains, originating from terrestrial and marine habitats belonging to seven different genera (Penicillium, Talaromyces,...

The genus Trichoderma includes species of great biotechnological value, both for their mycoparasitic activities and for their ability to produce extracellular hydrolytic enzymes. Although activity of extracellular laccase has previously been reported in Trichoderma spp., the possible number of isoenzymes is still unknown, as are the structural and functional characteristics of both the genes an...

Blue light regulates many physiological and developmental processes in fungi. In Trichoderma atroviride the complex formed by the BLR-1 and BLR-2 proteins appears to play an essential role as a sensor and transcriptional regulator in photoconidiation. Here we demonstrate that the BLR proteins are necessary for carbon deprivation induced conidiation, even in the absence of light, pointing to the...

The cDNA from the mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma atroviride PTCC5220 encoding a 42 kDa chitinase (Chit42) was isolated. The nucleotide sequence of the cDNA fragment as having a 1263 bp open reading frame that encodes a 421 amino acid polypeptide, and a high homology was found withother reported Chit42 belonging to the Trichoderma sp. The 22 amino acid N-terminal sequence is a putative s...